Trophy photographs of American paratroopers posing with the body parts of insurgent suicide bombers were condemned as "disgusting" by Hamid Karzai.

The president immediately used the pictures to press for greater Afghan sovereignty, saying the only way to stop a repeat of such "painful experiences" was for his forces to take control of their own country.

American officials have ordered a full investigation after the release of graphic pictures showing men from the 82nd Airborne Division, together with members of the Afghan police, smiling for the camera while posing with corpses.

A total of 18 pictures, taken in 2010, were passed to the Los Angeles Times by an anonymous soldier, who said he wanted to illustrate what he called a breakdown in leadership and discipline.

"It is such a disgusting act to take photos with body parts and then share it with others," Mr Karzai said in a statement.

The incident is the latest in a string of embarrassments to befall American forces in the country.

In January, United States Marines were found to have made a video of themselves urinating on the corpses of Taliban killed in battle.

A month later copies of the Koran were inadvertently burned at an American airbase, triggering weeklong riots that left 30 dead, hundreds wounded and led to the reprisal killing of six Americans.

Last month a US soldier went on a shooting rampage in which he is accused of killing 17 civilian villagers.

Mr Karzai's statement said: "The only way to put an end to such painful experiences is through an accelerated and full transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces." American defence officials anxious that the photographs might provoke revenge attacks reportedly spent weeks trying to dissuade the paper from publishing them.

The newspaper published two of the photographs, one of which showed soldiers holding up the severed legs of a bomber and giving a thumbs-up sign. The second picture showed a paratrooper posing with what appeared to be the hand of a corpse resting on his shoulder.

There was a concerted effort to condemn the photographs once they had been released.

Ryan Crocker, American ambassador, called them "morally repugnant", while the Pentagon called the soldiers' conduct "inhuman" and the White House said their behaviour was "reprehensible".

By Thursday lunchtime however, Afghanistan had yet to see much angry reaction.

Members of parliament suggested that the reaction would be more muted than instances where the Koran had been desecrated, or civilians had been killed.

Hafiz Mansour, a member from Panjshir, told AP: "It is different from an American soldier going and killing children, or Americans burning Holy Korans.

"These issues and the suicide bombers are completely different. I don't think there will be big protests."

Mohammad Naim Lalai Hamidzai, a member from Kandahar, added that there was little sympathy for suicide bombers such as those seen in the pictures.

The photographs were taken on two separate occasions. The first was in February 2010 when soldiers were called to a police station in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, following a suicide bombing.

A few months later the same platoon went to the morgue in Qalat after three insurgents accidentally blew themselves up while preparing a roadside bomb. On both visits the soldiers were supposed to get fingerprints of the dead for a database being maintained by US forces.

The incidents happened during a year-long deployment of the 3,500 strong 82nd Airborne's 4th Brigade Combat Team, which is based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. During the deployment it lost 35 men, including at least 23 to suicide bombers or improvised explosive devices.

The whistle-blowing soldier said those in the photographs had felt "satisfied" to discover Taliban killed by their own bombs, and the pictures were distributed among other servicemen. He told the Los Angeles Times: "Their buddies had been blown up by IEDs so they sort of just celebrated."

US officials said most of the soldiers in the photographs had been identified.